Time to move Oregon primary to an earlier date?

KVAL:

EUGENE, Ore. - With the Republican presidential contest all but done, it didn't help voter turnout on Oregon primary day.Some observers are wondering if it's time to push for change: an earlier primary election date. "We could be like smurfs: small and blue," joked Steve Candee, American politics teacher at Lane Community College. That's small as in few votes, blue as in heavily Democratic.That's why Candee says no Republican candidates for president appeared in Oregon this spring.The lack of a competitive presidential race was likely just one of several reasons for Oregon's low ballot return rate for Tuesday, he said. "Neither one of our senators were up for election, nor the governor."Even a late March debate in Portland between Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum fell apart because Romney had such a lead. "That debate wouldn't do him any good," said Paul Barnett, Vice-Chair of the Lane County Republican Party.

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